County to dispatch Clinton Township police calls

Macomb County Sheriff’s dispatcher Marcy Oke takes an emergency call on Friday. The county is now providing emergency dispatch service for the Clinton Township Police Department. Macomb Daily staff photo by David Dalton

Clinton Township’s emergency police calls last week began being dispatched from the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, a move township officials hope will save about $400,000.

The move to contract the county for dispatch services was one of the measures the township board implemented in late 2012 to save the police department money since it is spending more money than it has available for operations.

“Some of our dispatchers went to the county, some retired, one went to work in our ordinance enforcement department and two stayed on with the police department in other capacities,” township Supervisor Bob Cannon said.

Under the new dispatch arrangement, Clinton Township will pay the county about $1.2 million a year for three years to provide dispatching services for the police and, eventually, the fire department. The township was paying $2 million for dispatching, including salaries and overhead costs for 13 full-time and two part-time dispatchers in the police department, and four full-time positions in the fire department.

Advertisement

The projected savings are reflected in the $14.7 million general fund budget recently adopted by the township board.

Due to falling property values, the township’s tax revenues have declined in recent years, forcing officials to take steps to consolidate operations to make ends meet. Since 2008-09, tax revenue drops have resulted in the losses of $10 million for police and $7.5 million to the fire department.

Like the police, the fire department is spending more than it has available and will begin using the county for dispatching later this year.

For this year’s budget, the police department had to take $900,000 out of its reserve account to balance the budget, while the fire department used $1.3 million from its reserves, said Assistant Finance Director Mary Hein.

In the fire department, the township was unsuccessful in gaining another SAFER grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would have paid for salaries of 12 firefighters for three years. The township previously received a grant that prevented the layoffs of the fire officers. The grant expires this year.

Cannon said he doesn’t plan on laying off any firefighters as the township looks to explore new revenue sources in the form of a possible tax increase later this year. He is in the process of forming a study committee to review the public safety finance options. Once assembled, the committee is expected to make a recommendation on whether to ask taxpayers for additional help in funding the departments.

Five fire officers recently retired from the department and will not be replaced this year. Among those was Deputy Chief Ron Glashauser, who stepped down after 25.5 years of service. His duties will be split between Fire Chief Jack Shea and Deputy Chief of Administration Michael Phy.

“We will be able to fulfill our manpower requirements, but it might cost us a little more in overtime,” Phy said. “Our current SAFER grant runs out this year, so everything is kind of up in the air as to where we go from there.”

Finance projections of the town’s taxable values show the first signs of property tax recovery may happen in the 2014-15 fiscal year. However, due to limitations mandated in Proposal A, which limits taxable value increases to the rate of inflation, it will take between 15 and 20 years for property values to return to 2008 levels.

Over the past decade, the township has reduced full-time staff by 110 positions, or 25 percent of the workforce and combined several departments.

“We’re hoping things have bottomed out from that perspective,” Cannon said.